Braves renew Jeff Francoeur's Contract

While the Braves had been working with Jeff Francoeur's representatives to hammer out a one year contract for the right fielder, talks must have stalled because the Braves have unilaterally renewed Jeff's contract. He will reportedly earn somewhere around $450,000, up from last's years contract of $427,000. The team was able to renew his contract because Francoeur has less than three years of service in the Majors.

Francoeur will be eligible for arbitration in 2009, but hopefully they'll be able to sign him to a long term deal like they did with his buddy Brian McCann. In 2007, they locked up Mac to a six year, $26.8 million deal.

In other news, the Braves signed catcher Brayan Pena, first baseman Scott Thorman and pitchers Peter Moylan, Jeff Bennett and Anthony Lerew to a one year contract locking up all members of the 40 man roster for 2008.
(Photo: AP; source)

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate